JULY 6 - Today in Food History

On this day in:

1615 Furuta Oribe died. His original name was Furuta Shigenari. He was a Japanese master of the tea ceremony who studied under Sen Riky. His ideas influenced the tea ceremony, teahouse architecture, tea-garden landscaping and even flower arrangement.(A Short History of Tea)

1785 Sir William Jackson Hooker was born (died Aug 12, 1865). English botanist, he established the Royal Botanical Institution of Glasgow, and in 1841 he became the first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, near London. He expanded the gardens from 11 to 300 acres, and established Kew as a national botanic garden

1799 Michael Thomas Bass, Jr. was born (died April 29, 1884). Grandson of Bass Brewery founder, William Bass. He took control of the company in 1827, and by 1881 Bass was the largest brewery in the world.

1869 Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa died. Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa imported 1,400 varieties of grapevines to California in 1862 and planted the first large vineyard in California in the Sonoma Valley. After the devastating phylloxera blight decimated the European vineyards, some of these same vines, now on resistant American root stock, helped rescue the European vineyards.

1886 Horlick's of Wisconsin offered the first malted milk for sale to the public. Horlick's developed the process to dehydrate milk, and patented it in 1883, calling it Malted Milk. The company originally produced a food for babies and invalid's, that could be shipped without spoiling.

1915 Lawrence Hargrave died (born Jan 29, 1850). Australian aeronaut, he invented the box kite in 1894.

1932 U.S. first class postage rates were raised to 3 cents.

1955 Nathan's of Coney Island in New York sold its 1 millionth hot dog.

1985'Raspberry Beret' by Prince & The Revolution is #1 on the charts

1990 Nathaniel Wyeth died. Wyeth, an American chemist and inventor, received a patent for PET (polyethylene terephthalate) beverage bottles. These were the first plastic bottles strong enough to hold carbonated beverages.